
Fabricating the Absolute Fake - Revised Edition
Jaap Kooijman(Author)
Amsterdam University Press
Will be published approx. on 6. October 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
180 pages
978-90-8964-559-3 (ISBN)
Description
When rock star Bono told Oprah Winfrey that America is an ideal that is supposed to be contagious, the talk show host was moved to tears. Such an imagined America, rather than the nation-state USA, is the topic of Fabricating the Absolute Fake. Pop and politics become intertwined, as Hollywood, television, and celebrities spread the American Dream around the world. Using concepts such as the absolute fake and karaoke Americanism, the book examines this global mediation as well as the way America is appropriated in pop culture produced outside of the USA, as demonstrated by such diverse cultural icons as the Elvis-inspired crooner Lee Towers and the Moroccan-Dutch rapper Ali B. This revised and extended edition includes a new chapter on Barack Obama and Michael Jackson as global celebrities and a new afterword on teaching American pop culture.
Reviews / Votes
"A brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable work of cultural critique, this book teaches us that interpreting the behemoth of American popular culture does not have to involve a polarized choice between naive celebration and disgusted condemnation. Kooijman takes seemingly exhausted concepts like Americanization and turns them on their head. [...] He demonstrates just how flexible the signifiers of Americanness can be when they circulate globally, materializing in surprising forms across film, television, and other popular media."- Anna McCarthy, New York University
More details
Series
Edition
Revised, Extended edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-8964-559-3 (9789089645593)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Jaap Kooijman
Fabricating the Absolute Fake - Revised Edition
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€0.00
Available for download

Jaap Kooijman
Fabricating the Absolute Fake - Revised Edition
E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€0.00
Available for download

Jaap Kooijman
Fabricating the Absolute Fake - revised edition
America in Contemporary Pop Culture - Revised Edition
E-Book
04/2014
1st Edition
Amsterdam University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Jaap Kooijman is Associate Professor in Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Content
Acknowledgments, Additional Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1. We Are the World, 2. The Oprahification of 9/11, 3. The Desert of the Real, 4. Americans We Never Were, 5. The Dutch Dream, 6. Yes We Can, This Is It, Conclusion, Afterword, Notes, Bibliography, Index